Eye of Horus facts for kids

The Eye of Horus

The Eye of Horus was an important symbol in ancient Egypt. It was the symbol of protection and Royal Power from Ra or Horus. It could also represent other concepts, such as the moon, whose waxing and waning was likened to the injury and restoration of the eye. Egyptologists often simply refer to this symbol as the wedjat eye.

The Eye of Horus was one of the most common motifs for amulets, remaining in use from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) to the Roman period (30 BC – 641 AD). The symbol appeared include on carved stone stelae and on the bows of boats. To some extent the symbol was adopted by the people of regions neighboring Egypt, such as Syria, Canaan, and especially Nubia.

Mythology

The symbol derives from Egiptian mythology. According to the myth, Set tore out or destroyed one or both of Horus's eyes and the eye was subsequently healed or returned to Horus with the assistance of another deity, such as Thoth. Horus subsequently offered the eye to his deceased father Osiris, and its revitalizing power sustained Osiris in the afterlife.

Symbol

Horus was an ancient Egyptian sky god. He was represented as a falcon or as a human with a falcon head.

The Eye of Horus is a stylized human or falcon eye. The symbol often includes an eyebrow, a dark line extending behind the rear corner of the eye, a cheek marking below the center or forward corner of the eye, and a line extending below and toward the rear of the eye that ends in a curl or spiral. The cheek marking resembles that found on many falcons. The Egyptologist Richard H. Wilkinson suggests that the curling line is derived from the facial markings of the cheetah, which the Egyptians associated with the sky because the spots in its coat were likened to stars.

The "mirror image", or left eye, represented the moon and the God Tehuti (Thoth).

In ritual

The Eye of Horus was associated with funerary offerings, as well as with all the offerings given to deities in temple rituals.

Pairs of Horus eyes were painted on coffins during the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC).

Amulets

A variety of wedjat eye amulets

Amulets in the shape of the wedjat eye first appeared in the late Old Kingdom and continued to be produced up to Roman times. Ancient Egyptians were usually buried with amulets, and the Eye of Horus was one of the most consistently popular forms of amulet. It is one of the few types commonly found on Old Kingdom mummies, and it remained in widespread use over the next two thousand years, even as the number and variety of funerary amulets greatly increased. Up until the New Kingdom, funerary wedjat amulets tended to be placed on the chest, whereas during and after the New Kingdom they were commonly placed over the incision through which the body's internal organs had been removed during the mummification process.

Wedjat amulets were made from a wide variety of materials, including Egyptian faience, glass, gold, and semiprecious stones such as lapis lazuli. Their form also varied greatly. These amulets could represent right or left eyes, and the eye could be formed of openwork, incorporated into a plaque, or reduced to little more than an outline of the eye shape, with minimal decoration to indicate the position of the pupil and brow. In the New Kingdom, elaborate forms appeared: a uraeus, or rearing cobra, could appear at the front of the eye; the rear spiral could become a bird's tail feathers; and the cheek mark could be a bird's leg or a human arm.

The eye symbol could also be incorporated into larger pieces of jewelry alongside other protective symbols, such as the ankh and djed signs and various emblems of deities. Beginning in the thirteenth century BC, glass beads bearing eye-like spots were strung on necklaces together with wedjat amulets, which may be the origin of the modern nazar, a type of bead meant to ward off the evil eye.

Sometimes temporary amulets were created for protective purposes in especially dangerous situations, such as illness or childbirth. Rubrics for ritual spells often instruct the practitioner to draw the wedjat eye on linen or papyrus to serve as a temporary amulet.

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  Wedjat amulet with a cobra, Cairo Museum

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  Amulet of the wedjat with the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet

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  Wedjat amulet with a cobra and the wing and legs of a bird

In arithmetic

In the ancient Egyptian measurement system, the Eye Of Horus defined an Old Kingdom rounded off number one(1) = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 + 1/64, by throwing away 1/64.

• 1/2 was represented by smell. This was symbolized by the right side of the eye in a form of the nose.

• 1/4 was represented by sight or the sensation of light. This was symbolized by the pupil.

• 1/8 was represented by thought. This was symbolized by the eyebrow.

• 1/16 was represented by hearing. This was symbolized by the left side of the eye in the form of an arrow pointing towards the ear.

• 1/32 was represented by taste, by the sprouting of wheat or grain from the planted stalk. This was symbolized by a curved tail.

• 1/64 was represented by touch. This was symbolized by a leg touching the ground, or what can also be thought of as a strong plant growing into the surface of the earth.

Images for kids

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  Amulet from the tomb of Tutankhamun, fourteenth century BC, incorporating the Eye of Horus beneath a disk and crescent symbol representing the moon

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  Figurine of Thoth, in the form of a baboon, holding the wedjat eye, seventh to fourth century BC

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  A personified Eye of Horus offers incense to the enthroned god Osiris in a painting from the tomb of Pashedu, thirteenth century BC

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  Wedjat eyes on the coffin of Irinimenpu, twentieth to seventeenth century BC

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  Winged wedjat eyes on the coffin of Henettawy, tenth century BC

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  Wedjat eyes atop the stela of Uhemmenu, sixteenth century BC

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  Crown from the post-Meroitic period in Nubia, c. 350–600 AD, incorporating multiple wedjat eyes

See also

In Spanish: Ojo de Horus para niños